SIG SAUER: P320 Striker-Fired Pistols Are Drop-Safe

Reports in recent days have called into question the safety of SIG SAUER’s popular P320 pistol, the very same platform recently selected by the US Army. These rumors have spread through the internet and social media to the extent that the Dallas Police Department temporarily suspended their approval of officers who chose to carry P320’s on duty (the primary duty gun for the DPD is the SIG P226). As a result of what SIG considers unfounded and inaccurate information (#fakenews), they’ve just issued the following press release:

SIG SAUER® Reaffirms Safety of P320® Pistol

Striker-fired pistol exceeds safety standards of ANSI/SAAMI® and U.S. military testing

Newington, NH (August 4, 2017) – In response to social media rumors questioning the safety of the P320 pistol, a variant of which was selected by the U.S. government as the U.S. Army’s Modular Handgun System (MHS), SIG SAUER, Inc. has full confidence in the reliability, durability and safety of its striker-fired handgun platform. There have been zero (0) reported drop-related P320 incidents in the U.S. commercial market, with hundreds of thousands of guns delivered to date.

The P320 meets and exceeds all U.S. standards for safety, including the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute, Inc. (SAAMI), as well as rigorous testing protocols for global military and law enforcement agencies.

All SIG SAUER pistols incorporate effective mechanical safeties to ensure they only fire when the trigger is pressed. However, like any mechanical device, exposure to acute conditions (e.g. shock, vibration, heavy or repeated drops) may have a negative effect on these safety mechanisms and cause them to not work as designed. This language is common to owner’s manuals of major handgun manufacturers.

As a result, individual attempts to perform drop tests outside of professionally controlled environments should not be attempted.

“SIG SAUER is committed to producing only the finest products,” said Ron Cohen, President and CEO of SIG SAUER. “Safety and reliability have been and always will be paramount to the SIG SAUER brand.”

SIG SAUER, Inc. is The Complete Systems Provider™, leading the industry in American innovation, ingenuity, and manufacturing. SIG SAUER® brings a dedication to superior quality, ultimate reliability, and unmatched performance that has made it the brand of choice among many of the world’s elite military, government and law enforcement units as well as responsible citizens. SIG SAUER offers a full array of products to meet any mission parameter, including handguns, rifles, ammunition, electro-optics, suppressors, ASP (Advanced Sport Pellet) airguns and training. The largest member of a worldwide business group of firearms manufacturers that includes SIG SAUER GmbH & Co. KG in Germany and Swiss Arms AG in Switzerland, SIG SAUER is an ISO 9001: 2008 certified company with more than 1,600 employees. For more information on SIG SAUER, any of its products, or the SIG SAUER Academy®, go to sigsauer.com.

A single drop test won’t mean anything. Even three drop tests won’t mean anything.
What is needed in order to be definitive is a series of drop tests that will let the gun hit a variety of surfaces from every conceivable angle. For every conceivable type of surface. During every conceivable environmental range.
Such tests are prohibitively expensive. That’s why consumer products continue to hit the market with defects that “should have been caught during testing.”
So how do we prevent such discharges? Don’t drop the gun. If you do drop the gun, realize (as it’s on its way down) that no safety system can be perfect, and hope it’s good enough, THIS time.

I had the same experience. I accidentally dropped my loaded 320 on a wood floor. It was an early model as well. It was the first one that my local gun shop got in around 4/15. The frame on mine looks different than the newer “stock” photos that are being posted.

I read the reports of the “recall” by the Dallas P.D. and it didn’t make any sense short of DPD receiving some other LEO form of 320. I think someone ND’d and blamed finicky drop-characteristics or sour grape sabotage from competitors.

I don’t think anyone reading the report and being aware of the DoD’s selection thought there might be a real problem with the 320, especially a “drop” problem.

It is always fascinating to read the negative claims about every thing new in guns. It is even more fascinating to read negative claims from people who know nothing about the gun they make claims about. The “I heard from a friend of a friend’s uncle twice removed” is not someone who should be giving a review on a gun. The reason I say that is this article sounds like a response from a rumor started by someone who was talking smack. I have 5 Sig Sauer P320s. I have fired tens of thousands of rounds through these guns. The only problem I have ever experienced was a warn out striker spring. That is it. Geez Louise, so much negativity just because the gun isn’t a Glock or a 1911. Okay, I feel better now that I got that off my chest. 😉

As in most such instances, you have provided no actual authority for your claim of the P320 being “junk” except your own authority.
That doesn’t fly.
Do you have any citations for your authority that I’ve missed?
That you can cite here?

Um, “line of duty” in what? I have carried since 1985 with 7 years in law enforcement, but who gives a hoot. I have a sig 229 too. Horrible trigger even after having an SRT installed. It is reliable, and it is a great duty pistol. I wouldn’t compete with it without a lot of custom work, but I would certainly carry it as a duty weapon. But, I prefer the 320. It has a great trigger and it is as reliable as hell. I run between 500 and 3000 rounds through my 320s every week. As I said, the only problem I have ever experienced was a worn striker spring. I did have an issue once with a box of steel cased ammunition, which I do not use anymore. I mostly practice with reloads, and I had a batch of bad primers once. Failure to extract…maybe once or twice…because of an old, crazy brass. I probably have over 50k rounds through these guns. They are reliable, period. Frankly, these supposed reliability issues being discussed here and in other forums sound like pure BS to me. Sure, given how many of these guns are being produced there are going to be a few with issues, but my God, do not use those issues to vilify a gun you have never owned or ran hard.

There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know…. either way, it seems everyone succeeded in making you pretty butthurt, mr “range owner” who has tons of visitors who’s Sigs explode.

The article in question gives no evidence of any malfunction. As a P320 owner I can attest to its quality. For the latest update on this story please see Phil White’s article in today’s Firearm Blog. No malfunctions of any kind were found and the P320 will be placed back into service by the DPD.

As a PSA, I don’t recommend intentionally dropping loaded pistols of any manufacturer anyway.

The way to safely drop test to determine if it’s possible for the firing pin or striker to impact the primer is not with “loaded gun” as in primer, powder, and bullet loaded in a pistol cartridge, you just need ithe cartridge and primer, and even then in a controlled testing location with all safety protocols in place.

Not sure exactly what’s going on with this mess but there is definitely more to the story than Sig and Dallas PD are sharing. My initial reaction was to call bull$#it on the mere suggestion any Sig pistol could possibly have even the remote possibility of compromised design or defect with drop safety redundant features, then I read page 25 of a friend’s P320 user guide that spells out in black and white;

“If dropped, the pistol may fire. Keep the chamber empty unless actually firing. ANY FIREARM MAY FIRE IF DROPPED!”.

That line of bull$#it from Sig along with taking more than two days to respond to inquires on the issue doesn’t pass the smell test and when Sig Corporate did finally come issue a response to really simple and straightforward questions the press release included this even more cryptic line of bull$#it;

“This language is common to owner’s manuals of major handgun manufacturers”.

Really? Please identify those manufacturers and provide some specific details on this alleged “common language”.

As much as I hate to call out the folks in the legal department at Sig Sauer as a bunch of deceptive bull$#itters, (and not even very good bull$#itters), I own multiple Glocks and Sigs (my go to duty and carry gun now and for most of the last two decades is the P226), I can say with absolute certainty there is no such “common language” in any of my Glock owner manuals or reference materials, nor in any of my P220, P226, P229, or P239 owner manuals, nor in any of the several big thick 3 ring binders of Sig reference material I’ve accumulated from multiple Sig Armorer certification and training courses I attended between 1989 and 2011, not one —-ing word anywhere in over 20 years of accumulated material that admonished it was only safe to carry a Sig P220, P226, P229, or P239 pistol in Condition 3. I wish Sig would share why they found it necessary to issue the Condition 3 only disclaimer in the P320 manual. Glock has no Condition 3 disclaimer in any of their armorer or training reference material for a the simple fact that a Glock pistol won’t fire if you drop it, can’t happen with a Sig P220, P226, P229, or P239 either. The Condition 3 disclaimer is found in various patrol rifle/shotgun armorer training, reference material, and in firearm policies of most LE agencies because Condition 3 is the accepted and safe manner to carry a patrol rifle or shotgun. Maybe there’s no cause for concern but I have a hard time believing that when Sig is giving us the old “nothing to see here folks, move along” response..

Hey turd, since you are such an expert, do your own test and post the link in here, otherwise, STFU! I know you think reading magazines and using gun magazine language makes you smarter, but trust me, you sound like an idiot.

Why are you so upset? I own multiple Sigs and therefore can speak with ultimate authority about what each model can and cannot do. Based upon my supreme authority, which is beyond contestation, I hereby deem the P320 to be just fine. Glad that’s settled.

I offer no further evidence, merely sarcasm and a chip on my shoulder to back my claim. Anyone who disagrees with me clearly possesses diminished intellectual capacity.

/sarc

Or I could step down from my high horse and say between the MHS testing and my personal experience, I’ve seen little about the 320 to panic about.

Not sure how your acquaintance managed to blow up an X5, but that’s another deal. I agree that 220 / 226 / 227 / 229s, etc. are nice guns. The German X5 and X6’s, are masterpieces.

– Dropped from what height?
– in what attitude?
– onto what sort of surface?
– with what sort of ammo? The hardness and ductility of the primer cups makes a difference.

FWIW, this is a highly over-wrought issue, IMO. By modern standards, the original 1911 isn’t/wasn’t “drop-safe.” Yet tests to make a 1911 fire when dropped directly onto the muzzle are usually unproductive. Drop onto an exposed hammer? OK, now you might get somewhere. But the Schwartz firing pin block (from pre-WWII 1911’s, including the .38 Supers) pretty much solved this issue. It was deemed “too expensive” to put onto 1911’s post-WWII, and the 1911 Series 70 wasn’t “drop-safe” – yet was remarkably not noted as a problem. The lawyers at Colt added the Series 80 firing pin blocking pin (a cheaper version of the Schwartz safety mechanism) for submission to the DOD in the 80’s, and it would take a hit onto the hammer much more forceful than the pistol all by itself dropping onto the hammer to force the firing pin forward.

Here’s the irony: Lots of cops are starting to carry AR’s in their cars and on SWAT details, right? Guess what isn’t “drop safe?” That’s right – most semi-auto military rifles. The Garand, M1 Carbine, M1A/M14, AR-15/M-16/M-4 – none of them are ‘drop safe’ – and in fact, all of them can have issues with ‘slam fires’ – a situation similar in mechanism to a inertia discharge from dropping onto the muzzle. Hand-load a cartridge into the chamber, let the bolt fly home without dragging over the top of a cartridge in the magazine, and any of the above-listed rifles might fire. Yet we don’t hear any squawking about this issue, do we?

This is why one should never carry a weapon with a round in the chamber until you need to use it. Just like in the movies where they have to rack the slide (charging handle) as they’re going into action – sometimes twice (just to be sure). Lol.

I tried a P320c at a local firing range, and find it to be terrific. Instantly accurate for me, and an outstanding trigger. It’s much thicker than my EDC Shield 9, and won’t work well in my Tactipac Elite deep concealment (chose this one because reasons) holster. But otherwise, I’d pick one up in a heartbeat.

Irrationally hating (or loving for that matter) modern duty pistols is akin to having inexplicably strong feelings about Camrys, Accords, Altimas and Imprezas. Sure, there are differences, but if you were given one as a company car you’d get over them pretty fast. I see this all the time on the job with cordless drills. Makita,Milwaukee,DeWalt etc. You might slightly prefer one over the other, but you’re buying the one on sale when you need a new one.

With 24yrs as a firearms instructor and 16 years as a Sig Armorer, Glock Armorer, Walther Armorer, Smith & Wesson both Pistol and Revolver Armorer and Remington Rifle and Shotgun Armorer the warning that and weapon may discharge when dropper was given in each and every class! Concerning a Sig P320 X5 exploding, in all my years the only reason I ever saw for a safe modern pistol to explode was defective overcharged hand load’s or a plugged barrel. That includes Glocks, 1911’s, Revolvers and Rifles

The only chambered gun I am aware of that would be difficult to discharge is the S&W M&P 22LR as it has a key lock override. I think is is crazy to say a gun which is chambered could not hit something (Or snag-pull inside the trigger well and not fire. Just my thoughts -probally a little paranoid but not inconcievable.

Mauser 98 and derived rifles, with a safety in the bolt shroud and a one-piece firing pin. The Mauser 98 safety (and the Win70 safety) hold their one-piece firing pins captive, as well as blocking the cocking piece from being able to move forward under spring pressure or external force on the cocking piece.

This, once again, shows the dubious returns of marketing sidearms to police departments.

More firearms companies should learn that law enforcement organizations are a market fraught with potential for bad PR, legal problems, non-payment and civil liabilities resulting from wrongful deaths.

Remember an old HK video of a squeeze cocker P7 with the grip taped in the fire position and thrown out of a second story window onto concrete with a primed case in the chamber. No discharge. Followed by intentional pull of trigger and boom. Nice classic product . Scary to watch now thinking of what they are worth

The p320 passed the Massachusetts drop test. I don’t know the procedure in detail, but it is some evidence that there is some level of drop resistance. I’ve never dropped mine, so I don’t have an anecdote to place against actual test data.

I can say that I’ve had no failures of any kind in my first 2300 rounds (all factory ammo), so I’m not going to go sell it t but something else.

Why in every drop test that the pistol fires, the slide does not move to even suggest an attempt to eject or load another round. I’m not accusing you of faking the test, but the lack of slide movement seems strange.

“Why in every drop test that the pistol fires, the slide does not move to even suggest an attempt to eject or load another round. I’m not accusing you of faking the test, but the lack of slide movement seems strange.”
Seriously?
Blanks.

We now know that Sig was being sued by a cop who was shot by a dropped P320 when they made this statement. This means that they knew of the problem and used the “commercial” market to say that their guns were safe when they knew of an issue in the “non-commercial” market. This is disgusting. Their claim that it’s safe is putting people in danger.

There are very few “safe” things in this world. Even a rock, if big enough and dropped on your foot, is unsafe.
We all know (or should know) that if we do something that is unsafe, bad things can happen.
When things are used in a manner not intended (like dropping a gun), bad things can happen.
Just like if you blow through a ped crossing “by accident” and hit someone, bad things can happen.
What happened to personal responsibility?

Firearms are tools, some made fancy to enhance their value others specialized for certain usage and the vast majority production run mass produced cookie cutter designs. As tools they like any other tool with moving parts are subject to failure, FTE, FTF and sometimes firing when unexpected. Sometimes the firing when unexpected is due to amature pistolsmithing to lighten the trigger, other times such as this is when the tool is designed around a certain safety test and it encounters a certain situation that causes the tool to move against the direction of the safety test and subsequently fail. There may be many other pistols that would fail this test as it is the opposite of the accepted drop test. Anyone who uses firearms should be aware that they are tools designed to work is a certain way and it used differently or modified by incompetent amatures they may react in a dangerous manner and lastly unmodified firearms due to the interaction between the moving parts my malfunction in a dangerous manner. You should always be aware of that, that is why we never point a firearm and anything we are not willing to destroy, in the drop malfunction we should heighten our awareness and use extreme safe handling when ever we are moving a loaded firearm from one place to another, unloading before moving if practical.

Dan Zimmerman, I guess you should have waited four more days to post this article before you put your foot in your mouth spouting that P320 is drop safe. Today, August 8, Sig issued a recall of P320’s because they are not fully drop safe.

SIG SAUER Issues Voluntary Upgrade of P320 Pistol
Published Date: 08/08/2017
P320 pistol meets requirements for industry and government safety standards; performance enhancements optimize function, safety, and reliability.
Newington, NH (August 8, 2017) – The P320 meets U.S. standards for safety, including the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) / Sporting Arms Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute, Inc. (SAAMI®), National Institute of Justice (NIJ), as well as rigorous testing protocols for global military and law enforcement agencies.
The design of the SIG SAUER P320 overcomes the most significant safety concern in striker-fired pistols today: the practice of pressing the trigger for disassembly. This can be performed with a round in the chamber which has resulted in numerous incidents of property damage, physical injury, and death. The disassembly process of the P320, however, uses a take-down lever rather than pressing the trigger, eliminating the possibility of discharge during the disassembly process.
Recent events indicate that dropping the P320 beyond U.S. standards for safety may cause an unintentional discharge.
As a result of input from law enforcement, government and military customers, SIG has developed a number of enhancements in function, reliability, and overall safety including drop performance. SIG SAUER is offering these enhancements to its customers. Details of this program will be available at sigsauer.com on Monday, August 14, 2017.
The M17 variant of the P320, selected by the U.S. government as the U.S. Army’s Modular Handgun System (MHS), is not affected by the Voluntary Upgrade.
“SIG SAUER is committed to our approach on innovation, optimization, and performance, ensuring we produce the finest possible products,” said Ron Cohen, President and CEO of SIG SAUER. “Durability, reliability and safety, as well as end-user confidence in the SIG SAUER brand are the priorities for our team.”
For more information on SIG SAUER, please visit us at sigsauer.com
Contact:
Customer Service
603-610-3000, OPTION 1
Follow SIG SAUER on social media, including Facebook at facebook.com/sigsauerinc, Instagram at instagram.com/sigsauerinc, and YouTube at youtube.com/user/sigsauerinc.

If you have a problem with dropping your guns, then maybe it would be a good idea to stop handling firearms all together. Those of us who don’t drop them, would very much appreciate it. Stop handling knives, would also be a good idea. If you really need to perform a drop test, then take your gun out to the Grand Canyon and throw it as far into the canyon as you can. If you hear it go off, when it hits the bottom, then you know you’re right, and you won’t need to worry about owning a deficient gun anymore. I have a P320, and I am very happy with it. I haven’t dropped it yet.